Columbia Construction
Sitemap ' Columbia Construction ' Flying City brick/cobblestones - You would think that things might be somewhat differently built ? * See also Columbia_Era_Machines * See also INFINITE-BS_REDO --- --- --- --- --- Scatalogically Built Columbia - Nightmare of Bad Design : The 'Columbia' cityscape Infinite BS shown is hugely empty (space). Why have big blocks of building floating far away - so much open space ?? Real Reason (the game) Too close and it has to be detailed, AND it cannot be allowed to be accessible to the Player (or else require really unrealistic denial of access ). Unfortunately that shrinks the city space/capacity - Real Cities are CROWDED (required 'population density' to exist in a city form). You build 'high' because of limited space. There would be walking further to get to anything (required because of the inept/incohesive/disjoint 'transit' shown in-game). Alot of inhabitants are shown to NOT be 'People of Leisure' (meaning lots of people who 'WORK'), so getting around to do the simplest of things would be a CONTINUOUS bother/waste for them. Thus all a Wave of the Hand 'artists idea' to make a 'pretty' but illogical game setting. A general lack of cohesive design (Also would be less a problem if the whole place didn't also MOVE about the skies at some substantial speed) - independent parts floating about - all very 'pretty looking', but a nightmare to make it all work ((Rapture infrastructure was far more 'grounded' in likely period technology)) Sequel-itus, with copied/cloned/regurgitated elements (from the previous games), done badly. I understand that things were rushed, but with 5 years and that budget, it should have been enough to do things much better -- IF it had been properly done. --- --- --- Columbia Is At 20000 foot Altitude?? 30000 ? - far worse, 15000 quite bad enough. Lower, and the Surface People take potshots at you constantly with artillery. I did NOT see all the people there gasping for breath (or at least Booker). Must be another one of those convenient 'Quantum' things even a desperate 3rd-rate Sci-Fi pulp magazine wouldn't try to use. Is there any point in even talking about the fantasyland situation in Infinite BS any more ? All the 1912 era stuff is just a pretext so they can use 'old-time' styled Assets for music/ideas they could never come up with themselves (it IS so much easier to copy stuff from history books/pictures). All that beyond Steam-Punky pseudo-science BS destroys most of the Nostalgia effect. The game writers are rather deluded if they think what they portrayed has anything to do with Christianity or America. It might as well have been Hello-Kitty World. The Heavy-handed/contrived straw-manning blows away any social relevancy the game was supposed to be about. Ten Kinds of Wrong (and they blew $100 million to produce THIS claptrap ???) Meanwhile back in Rapture ..... It is all just a Fever Dream some already-half-insane Splicer has after eating some boiled barnacle that has gone a bit 'off'. The Splicer had been recently reading one of the 'Combo' Pamphlet Periodical/Toilet Papers (which are a popular publication in Post-Lamb Rapture) with some fictional pulp story about Johnny Topside and Eleanor Lamb. At least that makes sense. In the MMORPG, New Rapture, with some semblance of Civilization restored, you wont be allowed to steal things like you do constantly in BS:Infinite from apparently normal people and their possessions (and going thru trashbins/garbagecans will get you strange looks as well as them being unlikely places for goodies). In BS1/BS2 your opponents were pretty much all homicidal mutants, and you were in enemy territory, so at least you had a little excuse to filch useful items. --- --- --- Huge Fake Things : Columbia's monumental construction would have originally been for an "Exposition', and not meant to last more than a year. That would have been plaster and lathe construction of pretty (but fake) edifices, which long before the time of the game would have been collapsing and crumbling to pieces. It usually cost enough just building that. It might have been more Symbolic to have the decaying place being obviously patched up to try to keep the illusion alive, but still with the reality showing-through to match the delusion and falseness of the 'society' living there. (Such opportunity was lost on the writers). Real things of monumental size cost fortunes, something unlikely for a charlatan like Comstock to weedle out of anyone (particularly the government and the taxpayers .. another BIG fantasy). Even in a floating city, the laws of physics still apply. If some wonder technology makes all the impressive/extravegant architecture possible, then why all the pointless trappings of the antiquated industrial age WHEN you COULD have built a closer match to a heavenly abode ? The first to go would be the unsightly slums and the unsavory/impure minorities with them. They only contaminate the 'holiness' of the entire city. Fink's Tear stealings should have easily allowed angelic servitors - automatons leaving the citizens free to pursue their higher goals. Huge fake history and societal ills are perpetrated (feebly watered down), along with a nonsensical religion to generate animosity with the world and the lower orders of humans kept around in the city (seemingly just for that purpose). Sorry, but Allegory is supposed to be portrayed through real situations, so that people can relate to them, instead of some gun-filled absurd idolatrous never-never land. Fail at a Meta level - the game itself. --- --- --- Early concept of what parts of Columbia might've been ... Problem is : With complicated 3D-ish Terrain, the NPC opponents mess up navigating their movement through the more complex scenery - Hence the rather Flat levels the Player got in Infinite BS. Sad, the lost opportunities. --- --- --- . . . . . . . . . Things floating in the air isn't even pseudo-science, but illogical Fantasy ( because it purports to invoke science as its In-name-only explanation of How things work). The funny thing is they COULD have made a good/honest attempt at a more plausible system that would look right for the game setting's oldie period. BUT THEY DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER. --- --- --- The Vox Attacks - Gunbattles Not Really Needed : In Columbia's Bizarre Risk-Fraught Construction ... The Vox don't actually need to risk themselves by shooting-up anything. They simply just have to turn switches off/cut cables/break control mechanisms/plant bombs to send whole large chunks of Columbia plunging to their doom. All it takes is one thing to go wrong, AND making things go wrong is very easy. Now that would be a 'Flashback sequence for the MMORPG's Redo of the Columbia Story (a made for TV series in Rapture - with really awful production values -- those flaming cardboard city special effects, and some really bad acting). Actually, the way Columbia would be "Show City" built, you could also fairly easily set fires and have collapsing FLAMING chunks go hurtling down ... Fires burn wires and pipes and conduits (all which WOULD have to exist in the systems controlling the city) - So one city section going down (with inhabitants screaming as they plunge earthward) would disable/damage other city sections as well. Just cutting those 'systems' could likewise imperil large parts of the 'city'. A Spectacular chain-reaction scene, perhaps with the Player-Anarchist going 'Oops', and having to quickly try to leave the section they are in as it destabilizes and starts on its way to its doom. More and more, it looks like Columbia was a "Flying Death Trap". You have to understand that a 'scientist' like Rosalind Lutece is NOT automatically an 'engineer' (and neither a GOOD one so conveniently either). Making something (especially NEW) actually work WELL (and safely/reliably) is far different (and often magnitudes more work) from discovering and inventing one new thing (let alone only theorizing it). 'Trial and Error' has led to the SAFE buildings WE live in - But that's decades and even centuries of development by thousands of gifted people to make them that way. Columbia on the other hand is a low-bid prototype turned into a kludged mess, expanded by loons, and led by a charlatan. You might ask : Wouldn't Splicers in Rapture do similar damage and doom the City ? First Splicers might be insane, but they weren't stupid. Vox might be stirred to hate the rulers of Columbia so much they would sacrifice themselves (as well as everyone else) for their goals (They MUST be Crazy because they haven't simply left Columbia, No ?) BTW, Rapture was built a bit more substantially by experienced engineers, using current technologies, employed by Ryan who had experience doing significant projects within his industrial empire. --- --- --- Original Show City Situation of Columbia : Columbia was ORIGINALLY built as a exhibition for the 1893 Columbian Exposition. Would a "Show City" even have a very large population apart from 'actors' for the exhibition (... thus something Columbia accumulated later when things started getting strange). We aren't really sure where various groups of population were later 'picked up' to become part of Columbia (as a 'American Exceptionalism' the Actors in the exposition "Show City" probably would have been largely white, maybe with a smattering of Melting Pot "others".) Would anyone build tenements in a "Show City" (visible ones) ? Some areas might be designated and converted for the Founder's (and their "well off'" supporter's) servants/functionaries/subjects. Would this be enough people to have sufficient population to bother having a 'revolution' for ? No place to hide, and any violent agitators would be found and 'wiped out' easily. It might have been interesting for the majority of the 'lower class' to have to live Under the Streets, forced out of the sight of 'their betters'. --- --- --- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . WE BE MERGED !!! ''' : Elsewhere I've postulated (a reasonable thing) : That 'Merging' of many dimensions Columbias were what resulted in that huge mish-mosh cityscape - resulting in that illogically shaped and melted together floating monstrosity. --- --- --- '''FLOATY !!! It JUST Came To Me : If you can have magic Floaty (Skykline) 'rails' in Columbia, THEN you could have a whole network of Floaty Roads and Roadways/Bridges connecting everywhere (to be all connected just like in a REAL town/city). Oops, PROBLEMO !!! Then the different city chunks would HAVE TO BE inter-connected by walkable paths, and the game designers' heads-would-explode when they had to justify BLOCKING so many of the Player movement directions to retain their Linear Game Plot (AND this isn't Rapture, where it is expected that 2/3rds of things are blocked/broken/decrepitly non-functioning/inaccessible). Same thing goes for having any kind of Personal Floatiness - 'Angel Wings' for every Citizen ... (No matter how logical and fitting such a thing WOULD HAVE BEEN for the game's setting). --- --- --- So Much of that Columbia Place is Made of BRICK ?!?!? ''' : The parts of Columbia besides the "staff" (plaster&fiber), white-lead coated, plaster fake Exposition buildings (and those aged ratty wood tenement sections). * Brick is perfect for having things that get shaken apart by various air disturbances and such (it don't sit solid on the ground does it(?) - it can then shimmy and shake every time the wind gusts). * Brickwork isn't flexible. (Mortar isn't flexible' and doesn't like constant vibrations) * It is also really HEAVY (and quite weak structurally, in anything other than steady compression - like immobile buildings sitting on the solid ground). * You DON'T HANG brickwork from anything (those weird flat brick ceilings) -- unless you are insane (or stupidly ignorant game artists). * Big chunks of masonry UNDERNEATH the street levels is so much worse (heavy dirt and brick WILL make people feel safer in their FLYING city ... Yes, sure...). * If you are building "Eden", why do you return to very old-styled un-Eden-like city structures ?? (old part used for the Exhibition - fine, but all the stuff built after that ????) * As there seems no expense spared (the gianourmus hugification ...), Why not have it all made of Marble (or fluffy cotton candy for all it matters) ??? Shouldn't it ALL be cloud-like gossamer, white marble and gold metal trim ??? (Real Quantumz coulda made it so, no ?) * Oh, its ALL fake brickwork ?? - like the shoddy plaster, lathing and chickenwire of the real 1893 Exposition buildings ? Oops, but that comes apart even faster. By 1912, Columbia should have been a right shambles. * Around that time Pressed Tin Fake Brick existed (boy THAT would have rattled in the wind). * HEY !!! --- --- --- --> BRICK ZEPPELINS !!!!! --- --- --- '''The Columbia 'City' Missing Some Major Items : * WHERE does the electric power come from in Columbia ? Even the blue orb things - likely the 'quantumz' things that so many other things in Columbia supposedly operate using. It must require some mechanisms - and I don't see steam pipes/wires leading into them. Gas Lighting was still widely used pre-1900, but that has the same issue - gas generators consume a fuel material. * Even if there are huge engines powering generators (somewhere), then WHERE is all the FUEL those things inefficiently burned for THEM to operate to create power ? * Power lines to distribute this power ... Problematic, with various chunks of Columbia floating independently - Pretty Vistas but BEING VERY BAD/NONSENSICAL DESIGN (wire clutter strung everywhere is not so pretty). * Fink's Gianourmous 'prop' making factory has similar problems (a second grader's 'take' on what a factory is) * Assuming (my) more logically-explained 'Columbia Steals Alot of Stuff from the Surface World' (Its a Parasitic Flying City), you still need the transport of that huge amount of fuel (only one of the many things a real 'city' needs). Columbia without these realistic (and endemic) CITY elements is just a sad 3rd grade Puppet Play stage for its mediocre combat. Bugs Bunny cartoons are technological treatises by comparison. --- --- --- Obvious Problems for Quantum Particle FloatyShit™ ''' : * Besides : It being a misapplication of Quantum Levitation (Particle objects simply don't work for this effect). * Besides : It supposedly applying non-existent Science and Engineering Knowledge/Tools and numerous of Associate-Technologies a Century TOO EARLY * Besides an Impossible simplification/use of its behavior Lets just look at applying simple Laws of Physics upon structures/materials/peoples reaction to them : * Structural Fastening issues (how do you fasten something to 'a particle'?? Every 'bit' which doesn't have the property of floating itself HAS to be fastened AND HANG UPON these FloatyShit™ 'particles'). How do you weld iron or stone or bricks to 'a particle', which by its definition is Small/Point-Sized ??? * Are there billions of these 'particles' to distribute them throughout the structures to distribute the forces involved ???? (Like one or more stuck in every brick/cobblestone/piece-of-wood/girder in Columbia ?) * How are these particles Controlled (even simply to maintain altitude). Buoyancy which needs constant adjusting (I laughed and shook my head derisively at the ignorance of the game designers placing '''Balloons at the BOTTOM of large structures). Feedback and guidance and trim control is required WITH constant adjustments ... (Any child who has played with a real balloon can understand the mistake). * Each part has to float staying in In Relation to the rest of this entire massive structure . It all has to be HELD together, lest bits try to wander away. * Movement (How?) of this entire floating conglomeration, which supposedly moved long distances (to China for instance). Movement Acceleration has to be applied EVENLY across the whole, drive forces on one part transmited to all the rest (with great force applied thru the structure). And The power to so this ??? Even just to maintain a location against winds. * How is Columbia steered when moved (as implied)?? It can hardly be those meager Propeller things which would have to work against all the monstrous bulk and huge non-aerodynamic shapes/surfaces. * Bobbing, tilting, twisting, and of independent pieces (trying to tear it apart). * Shimmying shaking swaying - good vomit-inducing motions generated by winds and gusts and forced movement and perfect for tearing structures apart. Inflexible bits are soon twisted apart. Weird Tall wind catching buildings exacerbate the problem. * Unequal forces - 2 of the best US Dirigibles 25 years or more later were destroyed in storms from wind shear -- one part goes one way another is pushed a different way - causing massive leverage force which ripped the airships apart (far greater forces would affect Columbia with its even larger dimensions). * All these contrary physical forces have to be nullified - corrected - not just as upon one object, but as a whole dynamic collection of separate pieces - apparently spread across miles. - A Pretty but Impossible Fantasy Place - Unfortunately that renders the whole story equally fanciful - a Cotton-Candy world unrelated in main to human society . The Laws of Physic's don't have to apply, so why should the laws of human interactions and their societies apply either ????? Such an unrealistic place makes whatever social points they are trying to make irrelevant to the US History (or US anything). As one commentator said - "It doesn't feel like a city - only just a prop in a game". Columbia could have just as well been a huge boat (Heh - made of brick and with buildings on it), and had just as much sunniness (and Crackpot Cult stuff) as Infinite BS's environment. --- --- --- Fireproof : Columbia construction (assuming it is better than Exposition 'Show City' plaster and horsehair and white paint) would be built like much of the rest in that period - consummate firetraps (remember it wasn't the earthquake in 1906 that destroyed half of San Francisco, it was the fires). IT Makes me laugh to see that 'Fireman' heavy hitter, because if it did what they showed, it would have soon obliterated the section of Columbia it operated in. --- --- --- How Were Those Independant (Floating) Chunks of Columbia Built ? : An initial "big chunk" would be made for the 1893 Exposition (simpler to NOT have crude independent parts careening about). But what about all the various sections/chunks you see in 1912 (some bobbing up and down independently, and others moving about and 'docking'). Were they all Floaty-ized from the start ? Built in place WHILE floating?? OR Build on the ground and then floated -- In which case those chunks would have to support themselves upright first (all those heavy cobblestone walkways ...) and then be hung from whatever it was that made everything float ... Does every independent bit have its own Floaty mechanisms ? (however THOSE worked ...) Or is a magical giant float field, that only works on building materials ? BTW, the DLC (Infinite BS's sloppy seconds) had Fontaine's Dept Store float (upward), done by only ONE placed Quantum Particle thingee (Whatever it was - apparently small enough for Elizabeth to move about with - but NOT float herself). That 'particle' was attached to a single 'hook' structural member at the top of the inside of the building (weighing thousands of tons), AND seemingly it was under magic remote control and was pilotable as well - so that it didn't suddenly lurch the whole building to the surface (and ascend to Columbia's altitude), or uncontrolled, moved about to perhaps collide catastrophically with another Rapture building. There could be some funny scenes for the REDO of the Infinite BS and its DLC. - How are quantum particles (and structures built using them) Controlled ? Powered? Activated? Attached?? Are you kidding? Nobody wants to know that or how it might've fit into a more interesting plot !!! --- --- --- From a Real Postcard : "The finest street of the City, walking First Class People !!" ' (Wouldn't be needed/apply, as in Columbia the ''Untermenschen are not allowed to 'walk around' anywhere near the "First Class People", and the 'cattle' as Fink calls them are made sure to 'know their place' ). --- --- --- '''REAL CITIES ARE REAL . . . . . . . . Alot of Columbia's architecture looked like this. It would be backward for 1893 (and the Exposition), and if Comstock was looking forward Columbia generally didn't show it much. . . . . . . . . . And by 1912 it would have looked positively archaic . . . . . . . . . All this flat continuous ground. Columbia has constant stairs and level changes needlessly. Artsy confining landscaping that people would get sick of really quick. Edge of a park. Opens spaces. Looking at Columbia, it is really almost as confining as Rapture was. Ocean or cloud filled sky, you can't walk through either. Notice the lack of huge signs? And this IS the AMERICAN Surface World where Mammon was king ... . . . . . . . . . Columbia has such a Coney Island prop-ish-ness that I expected to see sheetmetal Duck targets dragging across the ground to shoot. Levine's strange 'take' about historic 'America' allowed so many other cliche exaggerations, making it strange that he missed the one about 'Americans being Armed To The Teeth', with no need for stormtrooper-like paramilitaries or bizarre mechanical men. . . . . . . . . . . . Calling Columbia a city is as ridiculous as calling Coney Island a "City". --- --- --- The Whole Shantytown Thing in Infinite BS - Is Poppycock : Why should there be any 'poor' indigent unhappy looking people ALLOWED in Columbia (a WHOLE SHANTYTOWN FULL OF THEM), when those useless ones can just be 'dropped off' (literally), so as to NOT drag down the rest of the population with their distressing negative presence (and all that wasteful eating of resources) ? Eden isn't the place for a Slum. Servants are required to maintain certain standards, with their sanitary maintenance being well and properly regulated/mandated. It rather could have been done with "The Unfortunate Poor" being 'lifted up' - them being seen with their required fake worshipful smiles of appreciation for the Prophet's charity, and being allowed their cosmetic 'fortuity' - Their worthless selves being so charitably tolerated in the great holy city. Showing their gratitude to their worthy benefactors would be mandated. Doing constant acts of prayer and 'mouthings of gratitude' and 'Praise for the Prophet' would be their place in this society (merely an ego boost for Comstock, while keeping them busy with organized tedious worship). Their daily Fear of being found "Not Worshipful Enough" would be worse than some the Faux-slummy destitution the game's writer came up with. Poor workers living in controlled/regulated dormitory/barracks might've made more sense, if they are to be the basic 'cogs' of Columbia's economy. Places like Shantytown only allow subversives to breed, and it is hardly enlightened looking enough for the City's charitable hypocrisy. Besides, the Flying City Ark has only been around for 20 years, and Comstock's running (expanding) it for 10 years, so Shantytown is quite unlikely to have naturally formed in so short a time. It makes little sense to have what appears to be a premade/designed slum. To escaped official notice (where the police patrols don't easily find them), there could only be places hidden away in little fetid obscured pockets for uncontrolled persons. It shouldn't be some grand avenue of destitution the game writers present as their 'commentary' on 1900 lassez faire society, which Booker and Elizabeth can tour through like some museum exhibit. Unfortunately, the writers couldn't make up their minds : If they were to be creating a condemnation of religion, OR of 19th century socio-economic failings, OR some Steam Punky gagetry-driven society. By mixing these, they only produced a nonsensical pablum to be forced down the game buyers throat. --- --- --- Concept Art (?) -- - It is originally a railroad water tank -- its pattern/asset borrowed as a quick dressup insert. Unfortunately, it is really NOT as a buildings rooftop water tank should be (You see them even today when you look down from huge buildings in NYC). The 'spout' is for filling steam engine tenders (water was needed 2.5 times as often replenished more than engine refueling). I doubt the flying thingees in Columbia were ever Steam Powered -- which is STILL actually far more likely to work than the lame story-crutch Quantumz BS stuff (do anything you want 'cuz' the players know it ONLY as a buzzword). The magic jet flamey things (on Barges) are about the same. Every building with a flush toilet or a sink in Columbia would need a water tank. --- --- --- Pennsylvania Station in NYC (completed 1910) was built in a late Beaux Arts style. The Infinite BS game designers had so many oversized things (big was better to them, not good detail), and even had a ridiculously large Grand Central Station for an apparent Columbia population of little more than a large village (half being policemen). A good part of Columbia could FIT inside this real building. --- --- --- Do Columbia CORRECTLY : Art Nouveau Spider-Webbed Supports For The 'Skyline' ''' : And BIG Balloons supporting the 'flying city' (none of this quantum levitation BS) with nice artsy nature 'tendrils' decorations on the balloon reinforcements. Thus we have the 'plot' possibility for an Apocalyptic 'Vision' of those hydrogen balloons all going up in fireballs (Hindenburgeresque) and the 'city' crashing into the earth (Like the 'Hand of God' smacking down those evil people). SO Comstock is really looking for a way to 'bug out' of Columbia before that happens, but Fate intervenes, leading to the confrontation with Booker holding the Flaming Kabob sticks. Yes, Hydrogen, because there wasn't enough Helium in the World (most came from the US) for any use more than 100 X as much as those few Airships the US eventually built (and with some of the Helium shared with the Brits). --- --- --- '''Glombed Together Columbia Mess : Towers on every building is artist fantasy : First because its wasteful of money -- Limited interior use with too small floor area - with much taken up by stairwells (And if no expensive elevators, then its really really bothersome for anyone who is to use those upper floors -- That's the reason most buildings still being built long after that era were still 6 or less floors tall). Secondly - IF every building has them, then it is NOT 'special' enough to go to the trouble (doubly so with the expense) to build them. A REAL Typical big building : Has one solid rectangular block of floors, and then MAYBE a decorative tower pushing up higher to show off. For Small buildings, its pretty pointless/wasteful. IF you can make things float, THEN there could have been a far greater height separation between buildings. They split up the city so much - already requiring the hodge-podge of different transport methods. So why not do it more spectacularly ?? - Imaginatively eliminate the standard limitations NON-Floating (real) buildings are restricted to (shapes, height offsets, repetition). --- --- --- . . . . . . . . . . . . . Take this and glue on a few more floors taller to make the typical ill-designed Columbia skyscraper ... Make up your mind Levine. You have High Tech sorcery/modernity (modern marvels/life circa 1900) Combined With some Retro Victorian Age in the game setting (BTW the gamemakers missed out on a whole Luddite societal conflict theme ...) Comstock/Fink allegedly 'Looking into the future' ???? ... SO THEN WHY have them LOOK BACK to the White City 1893 Exhibition --- Which itself was actually regarded as Retro, in the Real World in 1893 ??? Floaty Columbia IS Copying THAT, While Comstock is reputed to be a Visionary ???? Columbia is later Inhabited by Reactionaries who are UNEXPLAINEDLY shown to have readily endorsed/adopted novel technological advancements ... They WILLFULLY have gone to a 'city' -- Something that is a Sodom and Gomorrah in their eyes ? Yeah, riiiiiight ... Ludicrous. The Writers/Designers/Managers of Infinite BS were a 'bit' schizoid, No? (or are just careless hack writers). But then Bad Fantasy IS like that, and settings for pop-a-mole shooter games doubly so. --- --- --- Columbia ... Hmmm, There Used To Be : Things called 'Engine Rooms' ''' : needed to control modern things via electricity, belt/shaft drives, steam, compressed air, hydraulics. These 'engine' things burned stuff, made steam, and converted the steam '''power to what was needed (the Internet is full of pictures of such machinery). A better Columbia would have EVERY (as seen) Floaty section needing its own 'Engine Room' - First to give/control power to its Floaty section, Second to make that section move (big propellers/sails are missing to do this -- Remember Quantumz makes it all float, but doesn't drive stuff sideways -- Oops, the lazy fantasy shit can make it so, so No Problemo ...) These mechanisms could have at least be alluded to as 'targets' of the Vox, and have much of the numerous Security being for protecting such critical infrastructure. It could have been just hinted at (dialog and Audio Diaries and signs) -- without much fancy scripting and complex game Assets to tax the budget and developer's limited skill. Consider that if you wanted "to go all out", all of Columbia should have been one Gianormous Zeppelin !!!! THAT Coulda been a 'Reveal' near the end of the game - conveniently obscured by clouds up to that point. (( I might say 'too logical', but that would be a futility in this Infinite BS. '' )) of giant airplane engine controls --- --- --- '''Columbia Utilities' : Heck we saw little in Columbia of the new utility systems which WERE typically stuck/added everywhere in a haphazard fashion during that historic era (and still later). But then, so many other Real things got omitted in Levine's 'Magic Fantasy' game -- Realistic details don't help much in a Pop-A-Mole type Sim-Walker game. --- --- --- . . . . . . . . We are told in Burial At Sea that 'particles' are point objects. That Lunette Hook BS, etc ... So thus, all of Columbia has to 'hang' the same way ??? Here we have various structure patterns used to distribute weight from hanging support points (those fantasy 'particles' supposedly, but balloons would require the same type of thing). Note - If you turn the picture OVER, You show how things are designed to sit on Points Of Support (Secondary Floors in Rapture would use both of these structural methods). --- --- --- UNEXPLAINED : Where Does the Power For Columbia Come From ? ' : That Historic Period was of the Rapidly growing use of electric power (at least in Cities). A few smokestacks/chimneys seen on buildings (or in distance) are hardly enough to power all the electric lights we see (no sign of where the masses of fuel for any of this comes from). Power Lines too were in their primitive beginnings. pix the contemporary generators For 'barges', those weird flamey rocket jet things appear to maneuver them, but really can't work (firing only down ???) and would be most effective at setting fire to the vehicle (If you are ever offered to invest in a Levine/2K Energy Technology Company run the other way quickly). BTW, This Power issue is just for moving things, and IS ignoring the Kraaken in the Closet of energies used by 'Particles' to resist gravitational force upon the weight of an entire city (at least Flash Gordon's flying city had 'Radium furnaces' stoked by slaves). Sorry hack writers, you really cannot explain everything away with "Quantum Particles". With the same magic technology and a little imagination, Columbia really COULD have been the White Man's Heaven/Eden with no Untermenschen required to contaminate it (or offer fake plot), and it could float off to the Moon to be away from any disturbing 'evil' humanity below (which WAS the point of the place, No ?). --- --- --- '''Float This Sucka !!! ' : If you can (in Infinite BS's Columbia) have floating rails and city blocks then you can have floating roadways (and more bridge-like construction). The haphazard transportation system shown in Columbia is really a expression of sad careless ignorance. Trolley systems were springing up EVERYWHERE in the US before the time of 1893, and EVERY small town wanted to get one to be 'modern'. But unfortunately a realistic roadway system (with trolley tracks) going everywhere ruins the forced/limited "Cattle, being led by the nose" plot sequencing of the game (instead of being inventive with proper story reasons for parts of a realistic transport grid being blocked (that being in a 'normal' state city, which initially is not seen as a derelict Ruin like Rapture was, WHICH STILL IS TO HAVE a largely cohesive transport systems in evidence). Sorry they got locked onto the 'skyline' feature, retaining it AFTER it was emasculated and reduced to a shadow of what they originally thought it could be (but COULDN'T deliver despite showing it off in game previews). The early views also had more road like things apparent, but those disappeared too -- Probably not convenient to the restricted plot path. --- --- --- '''Real World Design, It is NOT For Hacks : The "Skyline" as used in Columbia really needed only one rail - Even if it was Floatyshit™ Fantasy anyway (when resemblance to anything real isn't needed and cumbersome realistic game drawing is extraneous/wasteful/not-a-priority). The Skyline having Two Rails was not useful anyway as it is shown - as fastening those Skyline Boxcar things (purported to be the original use in Columbia) at only ONE support point per rail will still have those Boxcars swinging wildly/destructively back and forth on the rail (something real transport design works to avoid). They really needed to be fastened to one rail TWICE to stop the end-to-end swing, and to allow them to be fastened properly in trains. It would NOT have affected the 'Skyhook' stuff at all (it is the only reason the skyline is really in the game after all). Columbia was supposed-to-be/pretended-to-be a rational 'Engineered' place, but so much of what the lazy gamemakers created/showed contradicts that. ADD DIAGRAM The BS2 AE Train Cars (hanging in their middle on their rail) had a similar problematical design. --- --- --- --- --- . .